Delicious bread like from a professional

Everyone likes to eat fresh, preferably even warm baked goods. First and foremost is bread. This is not only one of the most popular bakery products, but also one of the most important staple foods. The importance of bread for your diet and balanced supply of nutrients is correspondingly high. Special attention should be paid to protein.

Bread types – varied and yet one-sided

Germany is the record holder when it comes to the question of which country has the most types of bread. Professional bread alone, i.e. ready-baked bread from the baker, is available in Germany in a variety of over 300 varieties. In addition there are bread-like pastries and a probably unmanageable variety of traditional family recipes, which are only known to a handful of people and stored hidden in old recipe books. But whether professional bread from the local baker, from the supermarket of a large bakery or the well-kept secret recipe of grandma: All types of bread have one thing in common – they practically always consist of the same ingredients. The simplest of all breads consists of flour, water and a pinch of salt. Within a few days, part of the flour is fermented and carbon dioxide is released into the dough in the form of gas bubbles, allowing it to rise and grow during baking. Although this sourdough is rarely used as the sole ingredient for bread, it is the basis for many other types of professional bread. In accordance with the fact that every bread, be it baked on the basis of sourdough or another recipe, consists largely of flour, the aforementioned variety is again very limited. This means that both professional bread and bread baked at home are ultimately relatively one-sided. This is also reflected in nutrition and the composition of nutrients.

The most important

Difference between the types of bread: The flour

The basis of every bread is flour. As flour can be obtained from a variety of plant seeds, this has a positive effect on the variety of bread types and contributes to a certain variety. However, professional bread in particular usually holds back a great variety of plant seeds and, as a result, a great variety of flour varieties. In fact, you will find at the baker an incredible variety of flour types which are used for the breads. To be a little more precise, these are wheat flour and rye flour – and to be honest, the term diversity is an exaggeration. This is a great pity, because apart from these two cereals there are at least in Germany oats, barley and maize. Since sourdough is based on the fact that lactic acid bacteria metabolise the starch or glucose of the flour and excrete lactic acid and carbon dioxide, they can theoretically thrive on any substance containing glucose. This makes it possible to produce sourdough from any plant seed, which stores the nutrients for the seedling in the form of starch. For this reason it is possible to bake bread or bread-like bakery products from practically any type of flour. If you take the trouble to look for a few recipes, you can create yourself a much greater variety of breads than you would get in the bakery as a professional bread maker.

Which seeds are suitable for flour for bread baking

Wheat flour and rye flour are and remain the two most important types of flour for baking bread. It doesn’t matter whether you buy the bread from the baker or bake it yourself, because even for baking in your own four walls you will mainly find recipes for breads made from these two types of flour. But with a little effort, you can even get yourself out of the unusualplant seeds bake a wide variety of breads. First of all, there are the other generally known, native, genuine cereals, namely barley, oats, millet and maize. Some of these have completely different characteristics to wheat and rye flour, so the recipes for the dough may have to be adapted to these flours. Another cereal, which is even more important in a global comparison, is rice. You can also make a flour out of rice, which you can use for baking bread, because you will hardly find professional bread from the baker out of rice flour. In addition to these well known classic cereals, there are a number of lesser known cereals and seeds known as pseudo-cereals. For the distinction between real grain and pseudo grain a little botany is necessary. The seeds, which are regarded as genuine cereals, come exclusively from plant species belonging to the family of sweet grasses, scientifically known as Poaceae. Although all other seeds have more or less the same characteristics as those of the real cereal varieties, they simply belong to other plant families. The lesser known genuine cereals include teff, spelt, kamut, triticale and sorghum. Pseudo cereals include quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth and chia. This extensive list shows you that professional bread made from the two most common cereal flours does not necessarily have to be the best choice.

Carbohydrates and proteins in cereals and pseudo-cereals

Cereals and pseudo-cereals are usually dry seeds, i.e. those that contain relatively little fat and that are first nutrient reserves for the young seedling in the form of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates or starch and sugar are the components which are the breeding ground for lactic acid bacteria, but also for yeasts. Only by fermenting the carbohydrates is it possible to fill the dough with carbon dioxide bubbles and thus rise and bake in the oven later. However, in addition to the large amount of carbohydrates, the seeds also contain protein in more or less large amounts. For most professional bread types this protein is an elementary component of the flour, because it keeps the dough together in professional bread. This protein is colloquially referred to as glue. For some years now, however, there has been a great deal of media attention for this protein, which is actually completely harmless. They’ll know it better by the name of gluten. Gluten, as I said, is actually completely harmless. The great sensation caused by gluten was caused by excessive, unqualified and sensational reporting and poor research. Please never let yourself be persuaded that gluten is basically unhealthy, because this is simply not correct. There are only people who do not tolerate it and have to avoid it. However, if you can tolerate ordinary professional bread with gluten, then a change in your diet would be about as sensible as avoiding a flower meadow because someone else has hay fever. However, not all of the cereals and pseudo-cereals already briefly mentioned contain gluten.

The nutritional composition of different types of flour

As already mentioned, you can create variety in your menu by buying bread from the baker or baking it yourself. The different flours have different tastes and therefore already offer a some variety. In addition to the taste, the exact composition of the nutrients also differs. Since the fat content of most seeds is very low, only the content of carbohydrates and proteins should be considered here. Of the cereals and pseudo-cereals already mentioned, oats and chia have the highest content with 17 g protein per 100 g each, with chia having a slightly more balanced ratio of the two nutrients with only 42 g carbohydrates than oats with 66 g carbohydrates. The remaining seeds or flours contain protein / carbohydrates, sorted according to their protein content: Spelt 15 g / 70 g, quinoa 14 g / 59 g, amaranth 14 g / 65 g, wheat 14 g / 71 g, buckwheat and triticale each 13 g / 72 g, barley 12 g / 73 g, teff 11 g / 67 g, millet 11 g / 73 g, rye 11 g / 75 g, maize 9 g / 74 g, sorghum 8 g / 78 g, squid 6 g / 30 g and finally rice with 6 g protein and 80 g carbohydrates. If you attach great importance to a balanced diet, then Chia and oats are the best seeds for your own bread. Chia also has the advantage that it does not contain gluten if you are actually one of those people who do not tolerate this protein. If you want to continue buying bread from a professional, this list shows that although it is so often declared unhealthy, wheat flour is actually a better choice. If you want to pay extra attention to calories, you should make sure that some of the seeds mentioned contain a little more fat. In particular, if both low protein and low carbohydrates are contained, you should usually assume a higher fat content. This can be seen especially in Chia, which contains 31 g of fat with only 42 g of carbohydrates. Oats are somewhat more advantageous in this respect, as they only contain 7 g of fat.

Variety through flour mixtures

Since next to the three main nutrients, carbohydrates, proteins and fats, all flour types contain their own composition of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. If you value a balanced supply, you will not only choose the right flour for the nutrients, but also for the other ingredients. Professional bread as well as homemade bread are therefore rarely baked from a single type of flour. An example of a professional bread is the grey bread, which consists of a mixture of wheat flour and rye flour. The composition of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and trace elements changes accordingly. If you not only buy professional bread, but also bake bread yourself, then you have many more possibilities to change your bread recipes according to your taste and needs. While you only have a limited selection of flour types and blends from professional bakers, you can mix the different flour types yourself in any desired proportion.

Other ingredients

Although the simplest bread imaginable is just flour, salt and water, you will soon find that such bread will be the big exception in any bakery. In fact, you will find a huge variety of bread types and bread-like baked goods that contain many more ingredients. These can play an important role in the mixture for the dough. This is the case, for example, with yeast, since in many dough recipes it performs the same task as lactic acid bacteria in sourdough and acts there as a raising agent. The second possibility to use additional ingredients in a professional bread or also to use at home is the refining. It is important to change the appearance and taste so that the bread clearly differs from the basic recipe of the respective Dough difference. The bread may contain other seeds such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds on its surface or inside, or other ingredients such as bacon, cheese and a few suitable vegetables such as pepperonis and onions or various dried fruits may be used. Only through this variety of ingredients is it possible for the baker, as well as for yourself, to bake an almost endless variety of bread types and to always ensure variety.

Professional bread or homemade bread?

If you are faced with the choice of buying professional bread from the baker or baking your own bread, then it depends strongly on what preferences you have, what an easily accessible baker has to offer and whether your daily routine allows the time required for baking. If you don’t have high expectations and your baker doesn’t belong to a big chain, but runs a small private bakery, then you have a good chance that he will try out new recipes from time to time, which are still rather standard, but can already offer you the desired variety. You may even know your baker well enough to suggest him to try one or the other type of flour in a new recipe. However, if you like baking, have the right ideas and the time, you don’t need a baker to always have fresh professional bread at home. The Internet now also offers an unbelievably wide range of recipes and so you have the opportunity to test tried and tested recipes yourself or modify the dough from the outset according to your ideas. Finally, you will be faced with a choice between complete manual work and an automatic bread baking machine. Meanwhile, bread baking machines are very sophisticated, but manual labour still offers more possibilities.

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